With freed Hamas hostage Chen Goldstein-Almog in attendance, President Isaac Herzog opened the conference by discussing those still captive in Gaza.
What a cop out you are the president what are you doing to bringing the hostages home, down to the last one.”?
“I am quite shocked how suddenly the issue of the hostages is no longer at the top of the priority list and at the top of the news — how can this be?” he asked
“We must, throughout this entire time, not lose eye contact, as a nation and of course as a governing system, with everything related to bringing the hostages home, down to the last one.”
There are 59 hostages still in Gaza. Israel believes 24 of them are still alive — 22 Israelis, one Thai, and one Nepali.
All of them are young men who were kidnapped on October 7 when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and abduct 251 sparking the war in Gaza.
A ceasefire deal that saw the release of 33 hostages collapsed last week as the IDF resumed its fighting in the Strip, sparking mass protests across Israel.
Herzog also argued that the law currently does not provide adequate support for freed hostages and their families.
Goldstein-Almog later reiterated that point, emphasizing that released hostages are forced to “cope with numerous significant challenges in a short period,” one of which is the difficult decision of whether to return to work at the cost of losing government-provided benefits.
Major General (res.) Amir Baram, the director general of the Defense Ministry, discussed the importance of Israel’s rehabilitation system: “The value chain of treating the wounded must be uniformly strong and well-connected in all its parts — not only during the critical trauma phase but also throughout the long, patient, and costly rehabilitation process.”
What a cop out 
you 
what 
